The Dread Lords, the Arnor, the humans and the Altarians

The Dread Lords, the Arnor, the humans and the Altarians

The mythology of Galactic Civilizations

As some people know, the back story to Galactic Civilizations is based on a series of story manuscripts I wrote back many years ago (circa 1988 to 1992).

The Dread Lords and the Arnor are the same race. Just different sides in a war.

But what were they? Bits and pieces have floated around. The handle I use on JoeUser.com and elsewhere "Draginol" is a character from this back story. And he was one of the Mithrilar.

So any discussion of the Arnor and Dread Lords starts out with the Mithrilar who were the beings of power who were assigned to be guardians of the universe. One of the Mithrilar, Draginol, misused an artifact of the original creation called the Telenanth to create the Arnor.

Draginol (the character) is an anti-hero. He did not start out as a villain. And that story will go into a lot of detail in future installments of the game. And it will tie up the physical similarities between the Arnor, humans and Altarians.

But the question is, where did the Dread Lords go bad?

The answer is - time. Draginol the Mithrilar created the Arnor in two groups. One group, the first group he put the most effort into and they are most like him. The second group he put less time into and they are less like him. The key ingredient that makes the difference is that one group feels the passage of time while the other lacks that capability.

Could you imagine living 150 years? How about 500 years? How about 10,000 years? How about 1 billion years? Who do you think would be best equipped to handle that? The beings who marked the passage of time or the beings who had no concept of time that we can relate to?

The Arnor were one race for a long while. Millions of years. But over time -- literally -- the passage of time changed one group while the others remained the same. When other life forms began to evolve, the Arnor cared little about it but the Dread Lords saw these life forms as play things. What is a lifespan of 100 years if you've lived 10 million years? What kind of understanding or comprehension could something that dies almost as soon as it's born have? Are they even really sentient?

But to the Arnor, the amount of time they lived didn't prove they had any more or less value. They looked to guide them and help them. By contrast, the Dread Lords saw them as nothing but things for amusement and any sense of mercy of kindness had long since gone away.

The Dread Lords were the ones most like their creator who, upon nearly wiping out the other Mithrilar, was finally thrown down on a planet that eventually came to be called Altaria. His mere presence on that world altered the evolution of that planet and gave rise to a second sentient species that look like the fallen Mithrilar who in turn looks human. This second sentient species eventually outcompeted the first who became known as the Drath and the Drath were left on the brink of extinction until they eventually found ways off the planet in ways that aren't discussed here.

One of the driving cores that leads to downfall in the mythology is the unrelenting power of time to wear down even the noblest of creations. That minds that have been evolved to exist for only so long are not well suited to exist thousands, even millions of times longer. And that time can lead to madness and worse.

In the end, the Arnor were able to defeat the Dread Lords and banish them to a pocket dimension. They won, despite being weaker, because they had, literally, infinite patience while the Dread Lords were always looking for a final confrontation and hence were more prone to be led to their doom by the temptation for a definitive ending.

Of course, no one knows what then happened to the Arnor. Most have assumed that they disappeared. But that is, of course, an unwise assumption. The Arnor, unlike their brethren, were never interested in conquest or even overt interaction in the galaxy. The galaxy, indeed the universe, is a big place. No one has ever found Arnoria after all.

The other big unanswered question that we will eventually have to get to is why humans? Did humans, or at the very least an individual human, become so powerful as to be able to create a race of super beings and destroy god-like beings? And how could humans, who hadn't even evolved, manage to be present at the dawn of creation in order to exert this influence? It's not, as if a fleet of human ships has managed to escape to a pocket dimension in which beings of incredible power lived and full of devices of immense function are just laying around...

lol, so the Humans are the Dread Lords? its like one of those time paradox loops where the humans at some point got sucked into a pocket universe, they developed and became the immortal mithrilars who created the Arnor and Dread Lords, who created the humans... who became the immortal mithralars, who created the arnor and dread lords, who created the humans, who became the.... see where I'm going? its an infinite loop, but a loop has to have some sort of origin, which is why its a paradox. Its like the time paradox where you go back in time and kill your grandfather, thus you cease to exist, but if you don't exist, your grandfather is still alive, thus your grandfather is still alive so you do exist. and if you are confused, its the same for me, its one confusing paradox.

makes great science fiction though.

as for the Arnor, they are immortal, so they have the time (literally!) to find ways to hide among populations, who knows, the Thalans could easily be some arnor in disguse, or there are Arnor disguised as various individuals of races all over the GC2 galaxy. maybe it was the Arnor who helped the Drath get off thier planet BEFORE they even had the technology to do so, possibly long before they reached sapience.

Don't give away too much, the plot as much as anything drew me in here to the game. You got my 40 bucks and I got a good story and a game that works like MOO 3 should have. I started reading the information on the races and a lot of it struck me as being very much like (and different from) Babylon 5 ...cool.

So keep the games following a story in an ARC. It will keep people coming back to the franchise as much as anything else. Hell, approach the comic company's and mainstream publishers and get your GalCiv universe some media time other than game publishing. Strike while the iron is hot so to speak. Smack that VP of marketing and get him working for you on other fronts, just hire a media resource on a contract and get some feelers out there. The grist mill of entertainment is always looking for the "the next big thing". Considering the established following and foothold you have into a community already heavily into the genre, you just might have it here. Depends how you spin it, but a light approach with a steady though limited marketing spend and you might just get some takers. Be nice to see pocket serials based on the Gal Civ universe. It starts slow, get some shadow writers publishing short stories based on the universe and plot line and go from there. Should be an easy project to manage as you seem the patient type (OS/2 ... snicker)

By the way, I read this post as I was trying to track down some clue to the most frustrating aspect to the game. And that was the fact that I could not "win" the scenario. No matter how badly I kicked Dread Lord butt, my little Terran space ships always had to run off to the pocket dimension. I found it depressing and was about to come complain and tell you guys I am not interested in a depressing ending. I play to win. Why win to merely get stuck in a pocket universe? Now of course... I get why I have to lose. I'm still slightly miffed, but I get it. I don't watch movies where "lassie dies" and I don't want my games to end that way either.

hhhhhhhm.... that last paragraph is VERY mysterious..... there isnt enough niformation to figure it out.... but i think i have a hunch what happened to the Arnor.... probably wrong, but it's the kind of twist you usualyl get in sci-fi....

note the refference to the device the "telenanth" from "the original creation". what was the "original creation"? were there other creations? which one is this? where did the mithrilar come from in the first place. (from what i recall, i read somewhere that the bad mithrilar [his name is draginol isnt it?] came from another universe that had collapsed and the mithrilar had died there) now whats this talk about a pocket dimension? if it's in teh campaign, then thats why i dotn understand... havent finished it yet.... was it in an earlier post somewhere?

I find the story of this game very interesting and wish (people always find a way to sneak pet peeves and wishlists into compliments) that it could have been elaborated/lengthened a bit more. This kind of story would fit better in a book or series than a video game, but nevertheless, it was very good.

By the way, what year was it when you finished the final level (which was bugged - the Dread Lords' planet didn't have any sort of manufacturing facility or even an initial colony on it, so they never built anything)? The story timespan can be a little confusing when compared with the game's timespan (missions taking months and years in game-time, researching the Doom Ray and then on the next level being stuck with Paricle Cannon 1 again, etc.), and I don't remember how long each mission took in game-time.

Edit - the Pocket Universe is explained once you complete the final level of the campaign. I'd work on finishing the campaign up first.

Its like the time paradox where you go back in time and kill your grandfather, thus you cease to exist, but if you don't exist, your grandfather is still alive, thus your grandfather is still alive so you do exist. and if you are confused, its the same for me, its one confusing paradox.

BTW, here in France there is a comic that deals with that kind of temporal paradoxes in a nice way. Basically, time paradoxes, as altering the past, are impossible, time travellers are bound (even if they aren't aware) to do everything that will make things happening as they have experienced them.To sum up: time is the result of all time travels that were made and will be made

its an infinite loop, but a loop has to have some sort of origin

Well, what is the difference between a finite loop and an infinite loop? A circle as no origin and is finite, but you can travel it undefinitely.

By the way, I read this post as I was trying to track down some clue to the most frustrating aspect to the game. And that was the fact that I could not "win" the scenario. No matter how badly I kicked Dread Lord butt, my little Terran space ships always had to run off to the pocket dimension. I found it depressing and was about to come complain and tell you guys I am not interested in a depressing ending. I play to win. Why win to merely get stuck in a pocket universe? Now of course... I get why I have to lose. I'm still slightly miffed, but I get it. I don't watch movies where "lassie dies" and I don't want my games to end that way either.

You think it's depressing? If it were a movie, I suspect it would be the kind of ending where you get the dramatic music and a "To Be Continued..." before the end credits

I had heard on the Science Channel, on Cosmos with Carl Sagan, that the Universe had infinite paralel universes, with all the choices that you coudlve made did happen and have happaned, so in a sense if you did go back in time and killed your granfather, you were born, but on the paralel universe you came from, but on the paralel universe you killed your grandfather you didnt get born. So lets say, on another universe the allies lost ww2, or napoleon won on waterloo, stuff like that you know. Anything that can happen has happened and will happen, just not all the choices on 1 paralel universe, kinda spread out in a holographic universe of sorts on diferent "layers" wich are the diferent paralel universes,since you must choose just 1 out of all of them choices. The universe is crazy. Maybe I'm crzay?? LoLLL

so, the humans do have a sort of god? but we become god... o we god ourselves... so were worshiping ourselves... but what god made the god that made us that made god that made us? and what god made the god that made the god thats made us that made the god?

Draginol created 11100 Arnors......100 of them resembled him in physical form and had incredible power and the next 1000 were minions of the first 100rds..all these felt the passage of time....and the rest of the 10000 were the lesser Arnors who can't sense the passage of time (these were like the other mithrilers) but can reproduce unlike the first powerful 1100 and also less powerful.....so only 1100 became DLs and the rest of them remained Arnor (as mentioned by Brad)....After the Mithrilers disappeared in a cataclysm only 2 survived.....Draginol and Mascrinthus....Draginol fell unconscious in Altaria....and his mare presence altered the world were both the Human like Altarians and Drath to compete....Drath claim that Mascrinthus was responsible for teleporting them from Altaria to Dratha..as they had no space travel at that time...

Draginol..is actually one of the humans that entered the DL pocket univerese...At the End of the DL campaign...Izok, A messenger from the Thalan arrive and says not to listen to the mysterious figure...on response it shows itself as Human and called mimself "Draginol". It suggests the Human ships must to go to the DL pocket universe and return after learning all their technologies to have some chance against them. The Thalan messenger says that this was what they have come to stop...and Humans are responsible for all the unbalance. If humans have not given Hyperdrive to all this would have not happened...and He also said that "If humans enter the dread lord pocket universe, only death awaits them there and they would never return, this was what we are trying to stop. And The Draginol figure looks vaguely familiar though you cannot quite remember from where"...the Humans still entered the pocket universe...

DL Bradley did not return...he became powerfull like a Mithriler and time-traveled....became mad of being immortal and sense of time unlike the other mithrilers, became Draginol the dark mithriler and unleashed the Telenanth to create the Arnor, Dreadlords in his own image...blablabala...and this sequence of events are looping.....May be this looping sequence was what the Thalans were trying to stop (as mentioned by programmer Mascrinthus)....Draginol suggests DL Bradley to enter the pocket universe knowing that whe will become Draginol...and events get looped.

still there are many unanswered questions here....

1. Who are the Thalans and how come the get to know abt this looping sequence of events ??? what does the loop of sequence got to do with them ???

2. If only DL Bradley did not return, what happened to the others in the fleet ??? will they return back with great precursor technologies ??

3. It is sure that Arnor(and Dread Lords) physically appeared like humans though biologically different...then why didn't the Iconians, or the Yor never thought any about this when they first contacted with Humans or the Altarians ?? The Iconians and the Yor were the only races that had existed and had contact with the Arnor/Dreadlords...why didn't they wonder anything abt the similar appearnce of the Arnor/Dreadlords, Humans, Altarians ???

4. Another question is only 2 Mithrilers survived the cataclysm....Draginol and Maascrinthus....we have seen Draginol unconsciously altered Altaria and created Altarians...and he is still in the story till the end of DL campaign where he suggests the human fleet to enter the DL pocket universe....what happened to Mascrinthus ??? in the GalCiv:I-Altarian prophecy, Drath claim that they were teleported from Altaria to Dratha by mithriler Mascrinthus....then what happened to Mascrinthus later on....will he return back and stop Draginol ????

will we get an answer to all this in Twilight of the Arnor ???

------According to me only one being in the galaxy could stand up to Draginol, none other than only the last good Mithriler Mascrinthus could........And if the Thalans prevent DL Bradley entering the pocket universe Draginol will never exist and so as Arnor/Dreadlords and even human like Altarians. And Iconians would have never really unleashed fully sentiment Yor....so i guess this is not the event they are trying to stop but somthing else....like...the humansthat went to DL pocket universe, except DL Bradley..return with powerful Dreadlord tech and stuff..and Draginol suggests humans to unleash it...which may cause destruction of the whole universe....and Thalans are acctually are trying to stop this from occuring....may be in a last attempt used their time-travel device to escape destruction traveled to our universe and stop this from occuring...

Very interesting. I haven't finished the DA campaigne yet, but it is interesting. The main thing I don't get is that I though Alan Bradley wen't into the pocket universe and I don't remember a DL Bradley. It is rather consusing.

two other things. It would be cool to read the origional stories that form the basis od the GC2 universe. Also you should develope some other games for other audiences. The current game is cool, but the stroyline is so good that you could use it for a Halo like game. Just something that won't take several hours to complete. I'm rather impatient.

I'd say the event in the end of the TA campaign is what the Thalans intended to stop from happening...or even the entire existence of what is the TA campaign in entirety...

#2 is answered in the TA campaign.

*P.S. Nice Bump.

Could you Explain ? I don't get you...do you mean Twilight of the Arnor or Dreadlords campaign ???

Very interesting. I haven't finished the DA campaigne yet, but it is interesting. The main thing I don't get is that I though Alan Bradley wen't into the pocket universe and I don't remember a DL Bradley. It is rather consusing.

Don't confuse between Alan Bradley and DL Bradley.Alan Bradley is the President of the Terran Alliance.DL Bradley is a Colonel in the Terran Navy